The Beginning - Blackingstone Rock and Heltor Rock - 29th July 2010

So this is my attempt to visit all of Dartmoors Tors and Hilltops as listed in "Walking the Tors and Hilltops of Dartmoor" by A.D. Johnson, he created a list of 190 points within the National Park Boundary as based on the OS Landranger 1:25000 Map. Now I have visited a large number before, in my 20+ years of wondering the moors, only last weekend I was taking part in Endurance Life's Dartmoor Mountain Marathon and visited 12 Tors, but I will be wiping the slate clean and starting afresh.  It is my intention to run, bike and walk to all of these in the next 12 - 18 months.

I have already found a number of addittions to the list and would welcome any others that people know about, even if they are on other maps or documents.  Send me a name and grid reference and I will add it to the list.

and so it starts........

Blackingstone Rock

I wanted to start off with somewhere I hadn't been before (and actually hadn't heard of) and somewhere accessable to my daughter Abbie aged 4.  So we set out to Blackingstone Rock.  I wondered if this was a good idea as we drove down the narrow lanes, Abbie not being the best of in car navigators.  But we eventually got there and were not be dissappointed.  Blackingstone Rock is an impressive piece of granite and is an easy walk of nearby parking. 

The walk up had obviously just been cut, so it was easy stroll to the base of the rocks. When we reached there we saw the steps up the east side of the tor which would lead us to the top.

Steps to the Summit

From the summit there were great views over to Hay Tor in the west and Heltor Rocks our next target to the East.

After a stop we returned to the car and made the short journey to the bottom of the path to Heltor Rock.

Heltor Rock

This path wasn't in such great shape and so I put Abbie on my shoulders so she could avoid, most the undergrowth that had filled the path.  We made the summit with little trouble apart from a few cuts to my legs.  Again the views were stunning, unfortunatly we didn't have as much time as we would have liked, having to return home for an appointment.  But two tors which were well worth the visit, lets hope this is an omen for all the new places I will visit during this journey.